Baselworld is only a few weeks away. Getting the latest news is easy, Click Here for info on how to join the Watchuseek.com newsletter list. Follow our team for updates featuring event coverage, new product unveilings, watch industry news & more!

I have a problem. There is a vga output on my RCA directv receiver, but when I plugged it into the VGA input on the SXRD, the picture was very small (literally 16x9 inches) and centered in the middle of the screen. Is this input for PCs only or can I make this work. Currently I have an adaptor that converts the VGA into component, but the picture is still not filling the screen. It has about 4 inches on either side. I have tried using the overscan option +2 to fix the problem, but i still have a bout 1/4" of a black bar on the right side. Any suggestions?

I too see the same thing using the PC input. When using HDMI I can get it to fill the screen, but when I use fullscreen mode on the PC things get messed up. My video card is an ATI Radeon x850 with the latest Catalyst drivers and control panel installed.

Anyone else having this issue and any thoughts and/or resolution? If so, please post.

OK guys I finally got my TV in Today and so far I love it. I have been reading the forums about this tv for a couple months now. This is my first big screen tv, my last TV was a 36" CRT. I have a couple questions though I hope some of you might be able to help me with.

1. I'm trying to set up my tv to send the digital and analog sound out to my receiver, so I can play all the sound on my surround sound system. I connected them using the optical Digital out on my tv and even the RCA R and L for the analog and for some reason I'm still not getting any sound out of my surround sound speakers. I do have the speakers turned off on the tv like the manual says, just not sure if I am missing something?!?!?!

2. THIS IS A WARNING: I am quite a noob and I don;t want to scare any one. I would first like to say I love this tv the picture is the best I have ever seen. What I describe as happening might be something all together different, so don't get scared. Through this forum I have heard about this SSE deal about how you can see "sparkles" when the screen is white. I don;t have any experience with this before, but I have noticed that on my screen I can see what I think is SSE. The bad thing is its not only on white backgrounds its on any color (besides a really dark color) where is takes up a decent amount of the screen. What it looks like to me is part of the screen. This may be pixilation, but it is very noticable at 8 feet. Its kind of annoying. The only thing that makes me feel like this isn;t really SSE is its worse on SD broadcasts. My HD broadcasts are much better and don't show this as much. Is there any settings I could do that would lessen this? Its kind of distracting from the great picture I am getting from this great TV.

The easiest way to describe what I am seeing is it kinda looks like I have dust on my screen that I am watching the tv though...

I would really like to see what other owner's picture setting are for hd, dvd etc. Bringing down the brightness helped me for sd but if people could post their complete settings this would be helpful to many of us. I'll post mine when I get home from work.

This is EXACTLY the behavior I'm seeing when I put up a convergence grid, except my issue is only on the left and right side of the lines, and only in the right side of the screen. His pics are such a good representation that I don't need to post any! From some of the descriptions of this behavior there, it seems like I may actually be in pretty good shape. Once again, it's not noticeable on normal viewing.

I set up a friend's 50 inch Sony XBR1 on Sunday and noticed the same issues on AVIA involving convergence as others. It was particularly noiticeable on the upper right corner of the 16x9 screen. The red convergence was off. I assume there is not much anyone can do about this. However, has any one got the access codes to access the service menu for these units? Maybe there is something in the service menu that may allow for the convergence to be adjusted.

I set up a friend's 50 inch Sony XBR1 on Sunday and noticed the same issues on AVIA involving convergence as others. It was particularly noiticeable on the upper right corner of the 16x9 screen. The red convergence was off. I assume there is not much anyone can do about this. However, has any one got the access codes to access the service menu for these units? Maybe there is something in the service menu that may allow for the convergence to be adjusted.

You can't adjust convergence on these sets. Unlike the three CRT's on a RPTV (which must be converged, i.e., they move), the SXRD technology has the three color panels, or whatever they are called, joined or fixed as part of the production process.

OK guys I finally got my TV in Today and so far I love it. I have been reading the forums about this tv for a couple months now. This is my first big screen tv, my last TV was a 36" CRT. I have a couple questions though I hope some of you might be able to help me with.

1. I'm trying to set up my tv to send the digital and analog sound out to my receiver, so I can play all the sound on my surround sound system. I connected them using the optical Digital out on my tv and even the RCA R and L for the analog and for some reason I'm still not getting any sound out of my surround sound speakers. I do have the speakers turned off on the tv like the manual says, just not sure if I am missing something?!?!?!

2. THIS IS A WARNING: I am quite a noob and I don;t want to scare any one. I would first like to say I love this tv the picture is the best I have ever seen. What I describe as happening might be something all together different, so don't get scared. Through this forum I have heard about this SSE deal about how you can see "sparkles" when the screen is white. I don;t have any experience with this before, but I have noticed that on my screen I can see what I think is SSE. The bad thing is its not only on white backgrounds its on any color (besides a really dark color) where is takes up a decent amount of the screen. What it looks like to me is part of the screen. This may be pixilation, but it is very noticable at 8 feet. Its kind of annoying. The only thing that makes me feel like this isn;t really SSE is its worse on SD broadcasts. My HD broadcasts are much better and don't show this as much. Is there any settings I could do that would lessen this? Its kind of distracting from the great picture I am getting from this great TV.

The easiest way to describe what I am seeing is it kinda looks like I have dust on my screen that I am watching the tv though...

Thanks for any help....

I've never noticed SSE on my set (despite reading the descriptions, I'm probably too dumb to know what I'm seeing) so I can't help with that issue.

Regarding the sound. I presume you're trying to get sound for programming that entered via either the cable or antenna coaxial input. Otherwise, I would go direct from the component (cable box, satellite box, DVD playet, etc.) to your receiver. Another possible issue, if you are getting the signal from a DVI output and using a conversion cable to go to the HDMI input on your TV, you will need to use analog audio cables because the original DVI output has no audio signal. Finally, I would go through the "trouble shooting" steps contained in your receiver manual (e.g., have you selected the proper input for your receiver).

I have a problem. There is a vga output on my RCA directv receiver, but when I plugged it into the VGA input on the SXRD, the picture was very small (literally 16x9 inches) and centered in the middle of the screen. Is this input for PCs only or can I make this work. Currently I have an adaptor that converts the VGA into component, but the picture is still not filling the screen. It has about 4 inches on either side. I have tried using the overscan option +2 to fix the problem, but i still have a bout 1/4" of a black bar on the right side. Any suggestions?

Hate to sound sarcastic, but my suggestion is to use the component output from the RCA to the Sony. Both are analog; so I don't see any potential benefit from the VGA, and there are obvious downsides (you are seeing one of them).

I set up my DVD player last night (Toshiba 4800) using Avia. After much back and forth I have decided that the 480i PQ looks better on this set than when I have the player set to progessive. This is interesting to me as I remember when I first bought this DVD player and mated with an older Hitachi HD RPTV, the progessive mode was clearly the better PQ. Must have something to do with how the SXRD de-interlaces the picture. I now want to purchase the Oppo DVD player as from reading in this forum the 1080i seems to be the best choice for this display.

I don't have the settings written down but from memory.....the brightness was set to like 13. The picture setting close to max...I think 60 or 61. This was difficult to set becasue using the Avia patterns I could not find blooming or white crush oon the pattern even when tunred up to max......anybody casre to elaborate on this? Should this be set much lower than where I have it?
Color and Hue were right on target straight out of the box. I turned sharpness down to around 17. Iris on 2. Advanced iris off. Color temp set to normal.

PQ is very good on 480i, however I feel there is still room for improvement. Even on normal color temp there seems to be a slight red push, although I olny see a 5% push on the Avia pattern. Anybody know how to fix this?

I would like to get the DVD PQ closer to the HBO HD feed that I see for movies like i Robot. These seem to be more 'crisp' than my current DVD PQ. I will start buy upscaling 1080i with the Oppo player and go from there. Could other SXRD owners share their settings and any tips/tricks to getting the DVD PQ more 'crisp' like the HBO HD feed??

No matter what you do with it, DVD starts with a 480i signal and will never look as sharp as HD (720p or 1080i). The Oppo will probably look better with an upgraded 1080i signal, but it is on the margin--not significantly different. That is what I have found with my Denon 2910 which uses the same deinterlace/upconvert chip as the Oppo.

Yes, picture/contrast will not "bloom" on these sets. I set mine on the Sony "dot" which was "58" for 1080i input. Your brightness seems very low; although between Avia and your viewing of the picture; presume it is at least close. Believe the Sony "dot" is around "38". I used DVE and I believe my brightness is "38". I like DVE better for brightness and contrast; but prefer Avia for color settings and checking the color decoder. Which brings me to your 5% red push on Avia pattern--which I wouldn't personally worry about. Even the Avia disk says you should lower color, if required, to get red within 15-20%.

i have the same "issue" with convergence....its only on the right sde , center is perfect and left side is almost perfect, the cyand and magenta are just a tad more noticible on the right on either side of the grid lines....i just refused to drive myself insane with this kinda stuff, the picture is still STUNNING 10 feet back.

Absolutely correct! I'm definitely not a technical type; but I'm sure Sony has developed "acceptable tolerances" for this issue; and I presume they are tested before use. Doesn't mean a problem won't slip out; but it shouldn't happen. I'm sure it would be impossible for any set to be 100%--it's like trying to get to infinity. Think of the 2 million pixels on each of the three color wafers (or whatever we call them). Then position the three on top of each other and "fix them in place". Any variance, no matter how small (e.g., 1/1000th the width of a human hair), will result in color outside the white lines, even if it is so small that we can't see it.

Bottom line: If it doesn't affect the picture we see from our viewing position, why worry about it!

Absolutely correct! I'm definitely not a technical type; but I'm sure Sony has developed "acceptable tolerances" for this issue; and I presume they are tested before use. Doesn't mean a problem won't slip out; but it shouldn't happen. I'm sure it would be impossible for any set to be 100%--it's like trying to get to infinity. Think of the 2 million pixels on each of the three color wafers (or whatever we call them). Then position the three on top of each other and "fix them in place". Any variance, no matter how small (e.g., 1/1000th the width of a human hair), will result in color outside the white lines, even if it is so small that we can't see it.

Bottom line: If it doesn't affect the picture we see from our viewing position, why worry about it!

So true. I have some minor convergence issues on the top and bottom, but I can only see them when I stick my face 2-inches from the TV. If I'm back even just a couple feet, I can't see any issues. My normal viewing distance is a close 9-feet (I love that movie theater feeling), and the convergence looks perfect from there.

However the minor convergence problems does lower the overall effective picture resolution. It may not be the same problem but I found fringing around bright objects on the demo sets I viewed.

More likely, this was due to the Vivid setting, and all the enhancements set to On. I found that this causes edge distortion.

The owners thread (and my own experience as a result) suggests you get a much better picture in Pro mode, and turning off all the enhancements. The extremely minor convergence issues have no noticable effect of picture clarity or focus.

Based on the pictures posted, I doubt these minor convergence issues effect PQ noticeably at a proper viewing distance. Watch some HD Tennis, that is sure to reveal a problem in PQ if one exists (I believe UHD replays US open regularly).

Based on the pictures posted, I doubt these minor convergence issues effect PQ noticeably at a proper viewing distance. Watch some HD Tennis, that is sure to reveal a problem in PQ if one exists (I believe UHD replays US open regularly).

Except UHD is HD-lite (1080x1280), so who knows what DirecTV has done to distort the picture already, and what happens when the HD Tivo tries to turn it back into a valid HD resolution.

No matter what you do with it, DVD starts with a 480i signal and will never look as sharp as HD (720p or 1080i). The Oppo will probably look better with an upgraded 1080i signal, but it is on the margin--not significantly different. That is what I have found with my Denon 2910 which uses the same deinterlace/upconvert chip as the Oppo.

Yes, picture/contrast will not "bloom" on these sets. I set mine on the Sony "dot" which was "58" for 1080i input. Your brightness seems very low; although between Avia and your viewing of the picture; presume it is at least close. Believe the Sony "dot" is around "38". I used DVE and I believe my brightness is "38". I like DVE better for brightness and contrast; but prefer Avia for color settings and checking the color decoder. Which brings me to your 5% red push on Avia pattern--which I wouldn't personally worry about. Even the Avia disk says you should lower color, if required, to get red within 15-20%.

Yes, I would think a 13 brightness would be too low however, when I check black level on Avia that is where the left black bar completely disappears. I will try to get a hold of DVE and check it again with that. How do I know if my dvd player is passing BTB signal?? Is there something I can check in the dvd player menu? I wonder if that might be the problem?

Actually it's 1280x1080, but you probably knew that already? That resolution doesn't really have anything to do with the quality, it is the bandwidth (or lack thereof) that is allocated which is an issue. The pixels in 1280x1080 have to be non-square pixels, otherwise the aspect ratio would be hosed. Perhaps it yields a better PQ when overcompressed than the original 1920x1080. But, maybe you should ask Dish and Voom, because they are doing the same thing on some channels.

Actually it's 1280x1080, but you probably knew that already? That resolution doesn't really have anything to do with the quality, it is the bandwidth (or lack thereof) that is allocated which is an issue. The pixels in 1280x1080 have to be non-square pixels, otherwise the aspect ratio would be hosed. Perhaps it yields a better PQ when overcompressed than the original 1920x1080. But, maybe you should ask Dish and Voom, because they are doing the same thing on some channels.

It's not just the resolution, it's that DirecTV is taking a 1920x1080 picture and turning it into a 1280x1080 picture. In that process, who knows what they screw up, including color, edges, etc., as that's not just a simple process of removing pixels.

Plus, the non-standard HD resolution means the HD Tivo has to do a further transformation into a standard HD resolution, and who knows what happens in that process.

Remember, from 1280x1080 to 1920x1080, the HD Tivo needs to add 50% more resolution/pixel information. It's likely a lot of strange things are happening as a result.

Your best bet to judge HD picture quality is a 1080i OTA signal, not a DirecTV HD-lite picture.

It's not just the resolution, it's that DirecTV is taking a 1920x1080 picture and turning it into a 1280x1080 picture. In that process, who knows what they screw up, including color, edges, etc., as that's not just a simple process of removing pixels.

Plus, the non-standard HD resolution means the HD Tivo has to do a further transformation into a standard HD resolution, and who knows what happens in that process.

Remember, from 1280x1080 to 1920x1080, the HD Tivo needs to add 50% more resolution/pixel information. It's likely a lot of strange things are happening as a result.

Your best bet to judge HD picture quality is a 1080i OTA signal, not a DirecTV HD-lite picture.

This whole conversation is off topic, and has been debated ad nauseum in the HDTV Programming and Hardware forums. There are a lot of non-techical opinions on this issue, but I have to disagree with you. The only quality degradation on DirecTV is from a lack of bandwidth. You would be hard pressed to prove that transmission of 1920x1080 (square pixels) in a 1280x1080 format (non-square pixels) results in any loss of information. All of the Voom channels on Dish network are in 1280x1080. Voom has been touted as "reference quality." Do an Internet search for square and non-square pixels. It is in the MPEG and WMV specs.

Also, pointing people to OTA as a reference is not correct, either. Many OTA channels have subchannels, and as such they are no longer allocating full bandwidth to their signals.

To sum it up: The quality issues on DirecTV are as a result of insufficient bandwidth. The 1280x1080 (while potentially a contributing factor) is certainly not the root of the problem. If they transmit 1280x1080 non-square pixels at 19Mb/sec and 1920x1080 square pixels at 19Mb/sec you would never be able to tell the difference, because the EXACT same amount of picture information is there, it is just being transmitted in a different format. The reason this whole HD-Lite term was coined is because of insufficient bandwidth, which causes pixelation anytime large portions of the screen require updates.

The pixels are not square. Even though it is 1280x1080 it still has to be widescreen. If it were not, you would see the stretch, because 1280x1080 with square pixels is basically 4:3. DirecTV can't just magically create information that isn't there, it would have to be stretched to fill the screen. And this is where the confusion comes from. 1920x1080 = 1280x1080, but the 1280 lines are 50% wider due to non-square pixels. Why does DirecTV do this? Who knows, maybe they are able to compress it better that way, I don't know. But I do know that DirecTV is not the only player in the business doing the same thing.

This whole conversation is off topic, and has been debated ad nauseum in the HDTV Programming and Hardware forums. There are a lot of non-techical opinions on this issue, but I have to disagree with you. The only quality degradation on DirecTV is from a lack of bandwidth. You would be hard pressed to prove that transmission of 1920x1080 (square pixels) in a 1280x1080 format (non-square pixels) results in any loss of information. All of the Voom channels on Dish network are in 1280x1080. Voom has been touted as "reference quality." Do an Internet search for square and non-square pixels. It is in the MPEG and WMV specs.

Also, pointing people to OTA as a reference is not correct, either. Many OTA channels have subchannels, and as such they are no longer allocating full bandwidth to their signals.

To sum it up: The quality issues on DirecTV are as a result of insufficient bandwidth. The 1280x1080 (while potentially a contributing factor) is certainly not the root of the problem. If they transmit 1280x1080 non-square pixels at 19Mb/sec and 1920x1080 square pixels at 19Mb/sec you would never be able to tell the difference, because the EXACT same amount of picture information is there, it is just being transmitted in a different format. The reason this whole HD-Lite term was coined is because of insufficient bandwidth, which causes pixelation anytime large portions of the screen require updates.

The pixels are not square. Even though it is 1280x1080 it still has to be widescreen. If it were not, you would see the stretch, because 1280x1080 with square pixels is basically 4:3. DirecTV can't just magically create information that isn't there, it would have to be stretched to fill the screen. And this is where the confusion comes from. 1920x1080 = 1280x1080, but the 1280 lines are 50% wider due to non-square pixels. Why does DirecTV do this? Who knows, maybe they are able to compress it better that way, I don't know. But I do know that DirecTV is not the only player in the business doing the same thing.

That is the most bizarre logic I've heard in a while. This is not a Chicken/Egg scenario.

#1 - DirecTV was broadcasting source material in 1920x1080 for quite a while. It looked great at the time.

#2 - Once bandwidth became an issue for DirecTV, they downrezzed the HD to 1280x1080. The bandwidth constraint is what forced them to downrez, to save bandwidth.

#3 - A 1080p television has discrete pixels to display every pixel of a 1920x1080 signal.

#4 - Downrezzing a 1080i signal to 1280x1080 means, at a minimum, on a 1080p TV, that you will have noticable reduced resolution.

#5 - Downrezzing a 1080i signal to 1280x1080 means you are removing pixels. And you can't just pluck them out, you have to smooth the picture, re-sharpen edges, etc. That is you have to mess with the source picture. This often results in a picture that looks worse on a 720p set since the source material had been messed with, not just scaled.

#6 - Keeping the same resolution and reducing bandwidth means you increase compression, and likely show compression artifacts, but you still maintain the resolution. Reducing the resolution means you are reducing picture quality, period.

To argue that this is solely a bandwidth issue is not rational. It all starts from the resolution of the source image. If you keep the resolution the same, then yes, bandwidth is the next issue. But if you reduce the resolution, that's guaranteeing a worse picture.

And very few OTA networks are recompressing their source feeds. There are some, but most just pass on the network feed. Subchannels by themselves don't mean they need to recompress, as they have a lot of wiggle room.

Bottom line: You don't understand what a non-square pixel is. The main issue is bandwidth.

I don't disagree with the fact that DirecTV has PQ issues. You're totally confusing the issue. I'm just saying that DirecTV isn't the only game in town doing it. 1280x1080 is contributing to the lack of pristine HD, but it is the re-encode at a 10-12Mbps data rate that is what is REALLY compromising the picture. The same amount of picture information is contained in the 1280x1080 signal. They've been practicing this technique on DVDs for some time. How do you think those DVDs get "enhanced for widescreen TVs?" They pack the same amount of picture information on a disc with the exact same resolution, and yet it can be reproduced on a digital display in perfect 2.35:1. They use non-square picture aspect ratios. But, there is no point in clogging this thread up anymore with such useful details.

I've never noticed SSE on my set (despite reading the descriptions, I'm probably too dumb to know what I'm seeing) so I can't help with that issue.

Regarding the sound. I presume you're trying to get sound for programming that entered via either the cable or antenna coaxial input. Otherwise, I would go direct from the component (cable box, satellite box, DVD playet, etc.) to your receiver. Another possible issue, if you are getting the signal from a DVI output and using a conversion cable to go to the HDMI input on your TV, you will need to use analog audio cables because the original DVI output has no audio signal. Finally, I would go through the "trouble shooting" steps contained in your receiver manual (e.g., have you selected the proper input for your receiver).

Thanks for the reply rlb. The more I read about SSE, I don;t think that is what I am seeing. I might be seeing the Matte screen, just not sure. I lowered my Brightness and that really didn't effect it, so that is why I am thinking its not SSE.

As far as my sound I connected my cable box with a HMDI to HMDI and I do have it on the right input and still no sound. I have never tried to get a tv to send out sound before to my reciever. I checked to make sure the optical and RCA sound out on the tv where connected right, so I'm dumbfounded. Only thing I can think of is there is something wrong with my TV's opitical sound out or something wrong with my optical sound in on my Reciever. Oh well, at least the TV's Speakers sound good

As far as my sound I connected my cable box with a HMDI to HMDI and I do have it on the right input and still no sound.

If you have the 8300 box (TWC - Scientific Atlanta), you have to activate the audio on the HDMI output. However, after you do, no digital audio is output from the optical out. Also, from your set to the receiver, if the audio is analog, it will not be sent through optical.

As far as my sound I connected my cable box with a HMDI to HMDI and I do have it on the right input and still no sound. I have never tried to get a tv to send out sound before to my reciever. I checked to make sure the optical and RCA sound out on the tv where connected right, so I'm dumbfounded. Only thing I can think of is there is something wrong with my TV's opitical sound out or something wrong with my optical sound in on my Reciever. Oh well, at least the TV's Speakers sound good

Thanks again for the advice!!!!

If I understand correctly, you are going HDMI from your cable box to the TV and then taking the audio from the TV and sending it via optical and/or RCA analog to your receiver. You have said that the optical isn't working. How about the analog?

By the way, using your configuration will not allow any dolby digital (DD) for cable programming. HDMI into the TV is limited to two channel/stereo. Therefore that is all you have to send back to the receiver. In this case, optical digital provides little advantage over the analog cables (although optical could carry DD for direct antenna/cable coaxial input into the TV).

Is there a reason you aren't sending everything optical from the cable box direct to the receiver? This retains any available DD and probably eliminates your current problems.

If you have the 8300 box (TWC - Scientific Atlanta), you have to activate the audio on the HDMI output. However, after you do, no digital audio is output from the optical out. Also, from your set to the receiver, if the audio is analog, it will not be sent through optical.

Good luck.

I have a 8000HD and it has no problem passing analog audio over the optical plug. Is this no longer fixed in the 8300, which I should be getting soon.